Daniel Stein or DJ Fresh is fondly recalled for his stint with the Bad Company bad boys, Jason Maldini, Darren White (dBridge), Michael Wojcicki (Vegas) which they formed after Future Forces fragmented away in 1999, which also makes him one of the ‘seniormost’ artistes of the genre. Songwriter, musician, audio mixing, record producer and DJ, his music is most of the times, this odd, dark, foreboding balance that somehow finds the right cord between the slashy breakbeats, and that sliver of profound harmony.
His has his quirky beat progressions that sometime get carried away with the melody, and then takes a moment to regroup, and sweeps you off your feet in the next few nano seconds. In one word, DJ Fresh is powerfully groovy. Based out of UK, on a solo career from Bad Company, he founded the founded Breakbeat Punk, which merged with Adam F’s Kaos Recordings to become Breakbeat Kaos in 2003. And DJ Fresh must be the one of the handful DnB artistes too have collaborated with the biggest in the commercial POP culture and amongst his peers, i ncluding Petshop Boys, DJ Shadow, Apollo 440 to Andy C and Grooverider amongst others. As we usually do, we will try taking you down dubstep lane, trying to bring you up to speed.
We start from Innocence, one of his early singles, from 2002. How we wish he stayed with his groove.
In 2003, his The Original Junglesound (with Adam F), was, shall we say, explosive!
Here is Tomb Raider from his 2004 single, pay close attention to the wind section and the interludes.
From his Escape from Planet Monday (2006), here is Project X.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, we present Hypercaine, that made BBC Radio 1′s daytime playlist in 2009. Try if you can sit still.
Honor Roll : DJ Fresh with Neil Tennant ( Pet Shop Boys) on Throw.
